the language of which is as wild and incoherent as the fable and dialogue.

ART. 15. The School for Orators; or, a Peep into the Forum; a Farce, as never performed at Covent Garden or Drury Lane, with unbounded Applause. 8vo. 52 PP. 25. Longman.

1809.

We hope this is far from being a juft fpecimen of Liverpool wit. An attempt to be witty, more unsuccessful, has never come within our notice.

NOVELS.

ART. 16. Efffions of Love from Chatelar to Mary Queen of Scotland. Tranflated from a Gallic Manufcript, in the Scotch College at Paris. Interfperfed with Songs, Sonnets, and Notes explanatory, by the Tranflator. To which is [are] added, Hiftorical Fragments, Poetry, and Remains of the Amours of that unfortunate Princess. Cr. 8vo. 223 pp. 6s. Crosby. 1808.

We cannot fuppofe these Effusions to be any thing but an inge nious fabrication. If Chatelar was put to death in Scotland, for an attempt upon the Queen's honour, how fhould thefe fragments of his extravagant paffion have found their way to the Scotch College at Paris? for they are continued to within the very hour of his execution. The following paffage, more particularly than any other, seem to detect the hand of a fabricator. The day before his death he writes thus:

"I know not why, but oftentimes a fad prefentiment Reals o'er my foul, and tells me that the day may come, when fuch a fervant as poor Chatelar might not be deemed unworthy the attention of my Mary." P. 131.

Then follow feveral reflections on the inftability of human greatnefs. All this is very improbable. Such a fate as Mary's never could have been expected; leaft of all could any fuch fur. mifes have arifen foon after her return to Scotland. Nevertheless the fragments are interefting, as the picture of a young man ab. folutely frantic with love. Their great faults are a ftyle too poeti. cal, fometimes even deviating into measure; and one or two paf. fages, which ought to have been omitted, had the Effufions been genuine, certainly ought not to have been invented if they are, as we fufpect, fictitious. By way of giving more colour to his fiction, the author has in one place inferted a fhort copy of verfes, as the original French of the author (p. 41); but they are neither the French of that day, nor the French poetry of any day; "fes beaux yeux, font les deux fceptres de l'amour" will not do at all; and indeed there feem to us to be even more faults than

lines. The English poetry interfperfed is in general elegant, the memoirs of Mary interefting, and the frontispiece uncommonly elegant. This appears to be a fecond edition, though not fo mentioned in the title; but it had not reached us till now. We have claffed it with Novels, as convinced of its being fictitious. ART. 17. The Woman of Colour, a Tale. 8vo. 2 Vols. IOS Black and Parry. 1809.

The writer tells us in his title-page, that he is the author also of Light and Shade," "The Aunt and Niece," "Edersfield Abbey," &c. &c. What can be the fate of all these books? how foon must they return from whence they came, filthy rags? Yet it must be confeffed that this Woman of Colour is by no means illiterate or without ingenuity of contrivance; the moral alfo is excellent. It is, that there is no fituation in which the mind may not refift misfortune by proper refignation to the will of heaven. It is very hard after all, that the poor heroine does not get a hufband, for fhe is made very much to deserve one.

ART. 18. Romance Readers and Romance Writers, à Satirical Novel, in three Volumes. By the Author of a Private History of the Court of England, Sc. 3 Vols. 12mo. Ios. 6d. Hook

ham. 1810.

We should be glad of this gentleman's occafional affiftance" to ftrike a hundred men at the fame inftant," that all the vampers of romance who merit annihilation, who were in our prefence, whose fpawn creep to our fire-fides, and cover our tables, our chairs, and fophas, and our mantle-pieces, might feel the effects. Neverthe lefs this author of the Private Court of England, of which, to our shame we prefume we never heard, breaks flies on a cart. wheel. Who is this Joshua Pickerfgill, jun. Efq.? where is Horfeley Curteis to be heard of? when did The Fatal Revenge appear which excited fuch general intereft? We begin to fear either that our memory fails us, or that we are not fo familiar with the eminent literary productions of the day as we appre. hended ourselves to be. True it is that none of these perfonages or their works are at all known to us. There is certainly fome humour, particularly in the character of Margaret, or rather Margaretta, in this production, and no fmall fhare of invention; but the author appears to be

Sometimes himself the great abfurd he paints.

However, we have read a great part of his three volumes, and give it as our opinion, that the writer is qualified for better things.

ART.

ART. 19. The Irish Reclufe, a Breakfast at the Rotunda, in three Volumes. By Sarah Ifdell, Author of the Vale of Louifiana. 3 Vols. 12mo. 125. Booth. 1809.

Three writers of this clafs appear in fucceffion in our Journal of this month, reprefenting themselves to be authors of various works, whofe names never before were known to us. This must exhibit a proof to our readers of the difficulty, or rather of the impoffibility, of keeping pace with the ephemeral productions of the London prefs. We however do our belt, and have looked over thefe three volumes, but if they had been overlooked altogether, we will not allow that our readers would have had any just caufe of complaint against us.

AGRICULTURE.

ART. 20. Falls and Experiments on the Use of Sugar in feeding Cattle; with Hints for the Cultivation of Waste Lands, and for improving the Condition of the Lower Orders of Peafantry in Great Britain and Ireland. 8vo. 121 pp. 55. Harding. 1809.

The use of fugar in feeding cattle, is a point moft highly in. terefting, not to farmers and the people of this kingdom only, but to the world in general. It is here difcuffed with all the zeal which a difcovery fo important might be expected to produce, but with fuch a profufion of words, (the general fault of the advocates of the plough) that we feem to be reading the speech of the chairman of an agricultural club, during two or three hours after dinner. Experiments on this fubject will, doubtlefs, foon be multiplied; and we recommend that they be relatedwit in a fourth part of the space here occupied, and at a proportionate expence. Farmers in general cannot find time to read, and many cannot conveniently pay for fuch diffufe narratives as we have been condemned to toil through. Waße lands, and the Lower orders of peafantry might have been omitted in the title. page.

POLITICS.

ART. 21. Reform in Parliament. An Addrefs to the People of England on the abfolute Neceffity of a Reform in Parliament. T which are annexed, complete Copies of the Magna Charta, and the Bill of Rights. With explanatory Notes. By a true Friend to the Conftitution, and nothing but the Conftitution. 8vo. 64 pp. 2s. 6d. Blacklock.

By what mode of reafoning either Magna Charta or the Bill of Rights can be brought to bear upon the queftion of Reform

(as

(as it is termed) of Parliament, it requires all the fagacity of our modern patriots to difcover. The author before us, however, has shown fome candour in publishing authentic copies of thofe great national records, inftead of loosely declaiming upon them. The former (it is not even now univerfally known) is almost wholly inapplicable to modern times, and contains little more than an argument between the King and the principal Barons, his tenants in capite, by which the rigour of the feudal fyftem was foftened, and the oppreffive foreft laws mitigated. Even the. celebrated claufe, Nullus liber homo imprisonetur, &c. excluded from its purview all the villains, who then formed a very numerous part of the nation. At that period alfo it appears (and in deed is admitted by this writer) that Parliament confifted folely of the King's tenants in capite; fo that, if the constitution of England at that period were to be taken as a model for parliamentary reprefentation, the boafted Reform would confift in narrowing, not in extending, the right of fuffrage. Even the Declaration of Rights (invaluable as it was as a fecurity against any future attacks on the conftitution) has no allufion to the state of reprefentation, nor is there a paffage that conveys any condemnation of its fuppofed inequality, or any opinion in favour of altering that part of the conftitution. The above documents, therefore, have no application whatever to the proposed innovations in the reprefentation of the people.. But they feem to be published merely ad captandum, and for the fake of a preface, termed "An Addrefs to the English Nation," in which the writer, after a tolerably diftinct and fair account of the circumtances from which Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights origi nated, goes into all the trite declamation and hacknied mifreprefentations of the measures of government which, during the laft fixty years, have characterized the fpeeches and filled the pamphlets of modern demagogues. Would it be believed by any rational and impartial man, that "the decline of liberty" (as he terms it) is dated by this author from the acceffion of the Houfe of Brunfwick?" a new family" (as he is pleased to call them) "from Germany, unacquainted with the laws of the country or the genius of the people." On whom this fapient writer would have conferred the Crown he has not been pleafed to inform us. The reft of this "Addrefs to the English Nation" is of a piece with this candid affertion. The trite imputation upon Sir Robert Walpole (of having declared that every man had his price) is here impudently revived, though never attempted to be proved, and indeed lately difproved (fo tar às the cafe would admit) by Mr. Coxe. The author is, of courfe, a great Wilk ite, though Wilkes humourously declared, that he never was fo himself," and a detractor, not only of the Duke of Grafton, Lord North, &c. but of Mr. Pitt, and, in short, of every minifter who has enjoyed the confidence of his Sovereign. Nor does the administration

adminiftration of juftice (pure and impartial as it is generally allowed to be) efcape the cenfure of this malignant writer. Need, we fay more to characterize his work?

ART. 22. Plain Senfe; or the Dangers of Intemperate Reform. 8vo. 42 pp. 2s. 6d. Dublin, Gilbert and Hodges; London, J. J. Stockdale. 1809.

The character of this little tract is, in our opinion, very juftly expreffed in the title-page. The intemperate fpeeches and dangerous tenets of our modern reformers are combated, and, we think, overthrown, by the weapons of plain fenfe and found argument. The author before us declares (we believe with great truth) that he is "neither the apologist of corruption, nor the venal advocate of abufes. His object is to expofe and deprecate the nefarious defigns of thofe perfons, who would involve us int all the complicated calamities of Revolution, under the pretence of effecting a complete reform in the ftate."

After giving due praife to the Revolution in 1688, this author admits, that it is natural to prize highly that which we have gained hardly, and to evince uneafinefs and irritability upon the moft minute infringement of thofe rights which our ancestors fo fuccefsfully endeavoured to fecure." This "keen-fighted prudence" he approves, and only blames that "angry patriotifm" of Britons, of which every demagogue can take advantage, to talk them into fears of approaching flavery.

The recent enquiry into the conduct of the Duke of York has revived (he obferves) a defeription of political theorists, who had become torpid fince the failure of the French Revolution. The artifices of these men in representing the functionaries of government as unworthy of public confidence, and inculcating the abominable fentiment that the conftitution is fo depraved as to authorize us in no longer fighting under its banners, are strongly reprobated; and the wretched condition to which the whole nation would be reduced, in the event of its fubjection to our inveterate foe, is ftrikingly ad juftly delineated.

The author next oppofes the doctrine of Sir F. Burdett, that whatever calamities the nation may feel are owing to the improper compofition of the Houfe of Commons, in the ad. miffion of fome members really nominated by noblemen or other individuals, of others who have purchafed their 'feats, and of placemen and penfioners. Admitting abuses and corruptions in fome departments of the tate, and that too great eagerness and rapacity for places and emoluments are evinced both in and out of Parliament, the author denies that thefe confidera. tions ftrengthen the arguments in favour of an extenfion of the elective franchise, or the excifion of placement and penfioners from Parliament. He properly calls upon the reformers to pro

duce